Intel announced this week that it’ll have chips ready within the year for the next generation of Wi-Fi — what’s known as 802.11ax. This
new generation is supposed to be faster, of course, but mostly it’s meant to perform better in environments with lots and lots of connected
devices; so things like public hotspots, but also your house if you just have a ton of phones and tablets and smart gadgets lying around. But
even though Intel says it’s going to start shipping 802.11ax chips for routers and “consumer retail devices” this year, it’ll be a while longer
before most of us are connecting to the internet on faster Wi-Fi.

“We don’t expect to see mass adoption of 802.11ax in products until 2019,” stated the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group that sets the standards
for new versions of Wi-Fi. That’s because product certification doesn’t begin until next year, and certification, a spokesperson said, “is typically
an inflection point toward broader industry adoption.”

Platinum ITS will be watching as the new standard roles out and will be testing it across multiple platforms and devices. Stay tuned!